Complexity in Alchemy
by Fan Of Games
Summary: For everything she claimed to know, there was something Greif could not understand: alchemy. The art of mixing ingredients to produce potions was a skill she didn't know how to master, yet Yosafire somehow makes it seem so easy. Desperately seeking to pass a tough hurdle, Greif's novice skills end up making a monster mess.


**Emperor853: That's quite alright, take your time. I know important stuff in life must be finished first when it comes up. That's the mentality I followed for several years which explains why I didn't get much writing done then, but important stuff has been going on for quite a while and I've actually found time to write because I'm really making an effort to get back into it this year. Good luck fixing any computer problems you have.**

** The idea about Ater and Arbus being twins is certainly implied in the game and even the wikia mentions they could be twins. I also agree with expanding the Gray Garden for the reasons I mentioned before because it would become more of a fully developed world instead of having a single community inhabited by angels and demons. To be fair, the additions I'm making concerning this may not be canon, but hopefully Mogeko produces a map that might show more inhabited areas which are canon.**

** The lore of Five Nights at Freddy's is good, though I have a critique of it. There's the fact that the first two games provide us plenty of good lore while the last game ties up a loose end concerning what happened to the killer's remains because he was slain during the fourth phone call in the first game. Though I felt that was a good idea because FNAF's trilogy finally ended on that note, it doesn't provide any lore aside from how the animatronic the killer was in, Spring Trap, was discovered and how the animatronics were hybrid suits.**

**There has been some suspicion and theorizing that a fourth game would be made, but I don't see what else Scott can do with FNAF. If he bases it on the good ending, there might not be enough to go on from that point in regards to the lore, but ending it with the bad end like how the Metro games did could possibly mean there may be more lore to add and cover.**

**Germain is based on St. Germain, a European courtier known as a Wonderman since that's a title Voltaire referred to him as. He was associated with arts and sciences and he also secured high prestige among high society in Europe during the mid-eighteenth century. This guy was also mysterious since he sometimes concocted tall tales about who he was, hence why Voltaire came up with the title for him, albeit sarcastically. A while ago I read a book by him entitled **_**"Saint Germain on Alchemy: Formulas for Self-Transformation"**_**. It's misleading for anyone who thinks there will be alchemical formulas, but it's actually an application on how alchemical concepts are incorporated within the mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical aspects of transformation. It can be helpful for improving oneself, but I would've much rather preferred alchemical formulas which brings me to the next point I want to make.**

**To be fair, it is a point that kind of contradicts why I read the book. I've never really liked alchemy because of my experience with it in the Elder Scrolls games when it was quite complex and required players to gather ingredients from shops or out in the wild to produce potions. The ingredients didn't always go together as indicated in Oblivion, and Skyrim took that bit away by allowing players to experiment with ingredients which could make a failed potion. There are other series like Mana Khamia and Atelier that go into more depth of the concept regarding alchemy in games, but it's not for me due to how complicated it all is. My reason for reading the book by St. Germain was to hopefully learn more about the alchemical formulas, but I stopped reading it when I saw there weren't any. In fact, the reason for this one-shot is to poke fun at the complexity of alchemy and my own inexperience with it just to show how hard it can be; I'll probably not get it right, but at least it's entertaining literature.**

**Yes, I've been leading **_Seven Nights at Clarabella's_** to that final revelation regarding the lore in it. One can make the same theory you came to after reading through the story, so I imagine it wasn't too difficult to infer. I've read through translations on Google Translate to see which words I would use for a bit of the terminology in the story, and Welsh has the best words for that purpose. I've said before in an author's note that I would likely use Welsh more often because the translations are quite interesting.**

**Just to quickly wrap this up, I've made a forum for the Gray Garden called the Gray Forum, but it's not showing up on the site. I don't know why exactly; it's the same problem I've had with a Cthulhu Mythos forum I've created years ago until that showed up at some point. I asked how to get it available in a Fire Emblem forum, but I've not received responses to that inquiry as of yet. When it's available, I can respond to more reviews there. Hopefully the forum is available soon so Gray Garden fans can communicate through it and share what they like about the game and also share their fanfics about it.**

**Anyway, I've rambled long enough. Enjoy the story, and thanks for the reviews.**

…

"Alright, Yosafire, do you know why I've brought you here?"

"No, usually you make me pull weeds in detention."

Greif closed her eyes and nodded, agreeing with the demon's assessment of her punishment whenever she forgot to bring in homework. To be fair, Yosafire was actually beginning to hand it in more frequently nowadays with the threat of Ivlis' invasion now over. She was something of a good student since she received her fair share of As and Bs and never anything below those, so the girl was doing quite well in school aside from occasionally forgetting her homework at times. If a good excuse could be made each time Yosafire left it behind, it would probably be along the lines of having too much to do at once. Greif would understand that had Yosafire worked at a part time job or really did have too much homework, but that didn't mean she wouldn't go unpunished.

Usually, as Yosafire just remarked, the punishment was pulling weeds from the garden. It wasn't too bad even though the demon complained about it, especially when Froze helped her with the endeavor. However, there was a particular reason why Greif opted for an alternative method a teacher like her wouldn't normally incorporate into detention. The main reason being was because it could have been too dangerous without the proper expert on hand to explain the process, though Greif wanted to come across as such since she herself was a teacher as well—even if she had never even taught the particular subject she was subjecting Yosafire to.

"Yes, I'm well aware that you uproot weeds for detention," Greif stated solemnly without displaying a shred of emotion. "For once I have chosen a different activity you'll work on for today while in detention. Unfortunately for you, you'll still be assigned to clear the school garden of the weeds within it following this procedure I'm about to assign you, so don't get too comfortable."

"It's alchemy, isn't it?" Yosafire inquired with a smile as she closed her eyes. "You know I love alchemy, don't you, Ms. Greif? It's one of my favorite subjects including music, art, history, and culinary arts." Well, she was cheerful for now until the weeds called her name. Greif would've smirked at that little joke, but perhaps it was best saved for later once Yosafire was done with her task. Another reason was because the demon actually hit the nail on the head: what Greif had in mind was concocting a potion through an alchemical process.

Why she selected that of all subjects was a mystery to others when she didn't teach it, yet Greif was perfectly aware of what she planned. She knew alchemy was one of Yosafire's favorite subjects because it was one of several classes she excelled in with straight A+s. Although she could think of several other students who got As in this particular course, Greif was well aware that this student in particular was the only individual who ever got straight A+s in alchemy. Yosafire's skill in alchemy was so good even the teacher of this class considered her a professional alchemist. That was the very reason why Greif chose alchemy first prior to weed pulling for this detention because it fulfilled a more personal motive the gryphon sought to fulfill.

To put it simply, Greif was a good cook who could produce very good dishes at the expense of her skill in alchemy. Her alchemical knowledge was horribly bare since she knew absolutely nothing about it at all. Greif did not know how to mix ingredients into potions produced from the combination of several different ingredients, nor was she even familiar with which ones to use. Never before had she read a treatise on the subject, and the skill of actually performing practical application was lost to her. Although she felt it was like cooking, an innocent conception to make, the actual praxis of alchemy was in fact more complicated in the sense that her belief was actually a misconception than a theory. To be fair, her belief was still something of a valid hypothesis she wanted to apply into practice with Yosafire, yet this student was ignorant of that purpose because Greif didn't tell her about it since the gryphon wanted to keep her in the dark on purpose.

"So I've heard," the gryphon vaguely remarked with a brief allusion to the science teacher's praise for Yosafire's diligence with alchemy, not wanting to outright say anything that would give away the real reason why she brought the demon here in the first place. It was well said since she made it seem like the gossip about Yosafire's skill was merely a rumor in her eyes even as the real truth behind those words would've said otherwise. "But in any case you are indeed correct because I would like to see you produce a potion from several ingredients."

Yosafire crossed her arms and nodded, closing her eyes as that cheerful smile never left its position on her face. "Sure, can I use whichever ones I want?" she asked, an innocent question that a mere novice without any experience would've requested. That was how said novice caused chaos when attempting to blend ingredients without knowing their effects. Greif had enough common sense to know that much, but she wanted this assignment to be tricky just to test how well Yosafire knew her skills. Hence why she picked up a catalogue full of information on ingredients she would select at random despite having never read through it. That was how novices learned about the practical application on their own by choosing what to for experimentation.

"No," Greif answered her while flipping through the pages, searching for specific items in it that could be mixed together to concoct a simple potion, "you shall be working with ingredients I select for you as a sufficient test of what you may or may not know. If you succeed, I might just abstain you from pulling weeds for today unless you fail. However, do note I'll only be giving you a single chance to get this right as it is supposed to be a test after all."

"Kind of defeats the purpose of taking a test if I don't know what I'm being tested on, huh, Ms. Greif?" the demon chuckled casually since she was confident in her skills. "Very well, which ingredients will be at my disposal for the duration of this test?"

Greif had to admit she admired her courage, but she wouldn't say such a thing to Yosafire directly and she did want to least confirm if her student was really as good at it as a lot of colleagues and students said. Hopefully what Greif learned of this herself by placing the demon in a situation where ingredients selected for her would determine whether a potion could be made. She did think this over carefully, planning to have Yosafire use only four she selected without requesting others. It was a simple way of testing her conception of alchemy, so either success or failure didn't mean she would lose something from the experience as Yosafire stood to lose by failing to make a potion, thus being subjected to the displeasure of uprooting weeds.

She continued to search for ingredients in the catalogue, not bothering to consider whether she actually knew what they were or not. This was supposed to be a learning experience for her in the sense that she wanted to see if it was complex or not. Maybe she should've read the details on the ingredients, but Greif was a teacher who had to present the impression that she did know about it despite the fact she never once took a course on alchemy in her life. She'd never read any books about it either, so this was certainly a first time for everything—well, more specifically a first time for learning about alchemy. Regardless of knowing absolutely nothing about what she was doing, Greif just skimmed over the text and glanced at the titles and a bit of the descriptions to get a basic sense of which ones to select for Yosafire's assignment.

A couple minutes passed before she finally chanced upon them one by one and spoke their names aloud. "Agrimony…Amaranth…Bay…and Belladonna…" She closed her eyes and smiled softly, though it was more of a smirk. Greif closed the catalogue in satisfaction and held it before Yosafire, using the textbook as an extension of her arm to point at the demon. "There, those shall be your four ingredients. You are not to use any other ingredients and you may only attempt it just once. Failure will result in weed pulling duty." Greif opened her eyes and crossed her arms. "Tell me, do you understand these instructions, or are they so complicated I must relieve you of this duty by sending you out to uproot the weeds?" She expected Yosafire would take the challenge and was hoping she did so Greif could finally get a good idea of what alchemy was like.

"Um, Ms. Greif?" Yosafire put a reluctant question forward immediately without hesitation on her part. It didn't really surprise the gryphon because she thought her challenge was hard even if it didn't seem like it, but perhaps the demon really didn't think she could produce a potion from those ingredients. Yet the very question Yosafire asked was not something she would've expected. "You do realize those ingredients won't make a potion, right?"

For once Greif was actually surprised by the inquiry since it addressed one of the concerns Greif had with alchemy: that her inexperience could expose her inability to brew potions herself. Fortunately, the gryphon was prepared for this question because she did anticipate it as she knew of Yosafire's skill. It was easy to formulate a response, so hopefully that analogy could also be applied to alchemy as well. "So you can't do it, I take it? Such a shame that you're getting closer to weed pulling duty without even trying to make an effort."

"It's not that I can't do it; it's just that those ingredients do not produce a potion," Yosafire explained as she went into a brief lesson as to explain her point. "Combining all four of those into one mixture will guarantee a result, but not one alchemists look for unless they're working through the process of alchemical evokation to summon something via alchemy. Those four ingredients do work well together for this process, but they produce a violent toxic substance that can come alive and kill the evoker if the proper spellcraft isn't applied to control it."

Greif couldn't help but chuckle, obviously casting aside this mere nonsense from a student telling a tall tale to try and look smart. She'd seen it in a lot of other students who wanted to come across as smart in one subject they knew absolutely nothing about—kind of like her right now, but Greif was a teacher who knew she could spot a lie the moment it emerged. "Oh really, is that so?" she inquired sarcastically. "And what, may I ask, supports your theory?"

"Ulrox Chorrestico's manuscript entitled _'Properties of Alchemy and Evokation: The Arts of Brewing and Summoning,'_ Chapter Three: _'Concoctions Forbidden to Practitioners.'_"

Cute, she even had a name and a specific chapter to go along with it. That didn't mean her source existed or was even accurate. "Then if this treatise is so well versed in the topic, how were you able to arrive at that conclusion on your own?" Greif maintained the sarcasm in her voice since she felt sure Yosafire was aware of how inaccurate her own story was.

"Through several tests conducted in a safe area where no flammable substances would start a fire. The thing these ingredients creates is weak to fire as Chorrestico says, so Froze and I found a quiet spot to practice the concoction where nobody else would get hurt. Chorrestico also mentions that the substance can enlarge and transform quickly, so fire must be applied right away to destroy this thing before it reaches its maximum size and potential. Luckily I know how to breathe a large burst of flames easily, so I put a stop to it before it even reached half our height."

Greif held a hand in front of her student to stop this story. "So let me understand it the way you're saying. These ingredients don't make a potion; they make a monster?" she asked as Yosafire nodded and began to speak, but her teacher interrupted. "Do you realize I'm giving you one chance to brew a potion with only four ingredients? I would have thought you'd take the chance to avoid pulling weeds, but it appears I was wrong about that."

"You're missing the point, Ms. Greif," Yosafire attempted to reason with her teacher. "The ingredients all contain properties that make them more harmful when amalgamated into one small dosage of containment." She held up four fingers and counted off them as she listed the properties of each one. "Belladonna is poisonous; amaranth steels the substance against physical attacks; the agrimony will make it turn on its creator unless the right spell puts it under control; and bay shall ward off magical attacks. Like Chorrestico said in his book, fire's the best way to prevent it from becoming a threat." Yosafire crossed her arms and stared at Greif, unsure if her teacher knew what she was doing in the first place. "Have you even read the book?"

"You mean your fictitious account of creating a monster?" Greif asked, hands on her hips. "Sorry, but no; it doesn't exist just as your story doesn't since both are works of your imagination."

"We have a copy of it here in the science lab, it's right on—" Yosafire protested, though it was to no avail because Greif interrupted her once again.

"Yosafire, are you going to create this potion or not? Because if not, you're pulling weeds."

"It won't be a potion!" Yosafire interjected, throwing her arms out at her sides in an attempt to emphasize her argument. "This is only going to produce something—a Morph to use the proper terminology—that is capable of increasing in size as it becomes too dangerous to handle. Why is this so difficult to understand when I've already explained why it won't work the way you think it will? I've even cited the proper text sitting on the top shelf of that bookcase over there, and Froze and I even tested it ourselves to determine its validity. Just consult the book and speak with Froze to verify it; she can testify that it won't make a potion, but will produce a monster instead."

"Yes, or no," Greif leaned in closer to Yosafire. The expression on her face was somewhat scary and the demon knew she wasn't convincing the gryphon since her teacher wouldn't accept a lie as truth. She knew Greif well enough to be aware that she didn't like students falsifying things to try being smart, but the demon also knew she wasn't lying even if her teacher didn't believe her.

Yosafire sighed in exasperation, frustrated that Greif wasn't listening. Even so, she needed to do something if she wanted to prove the idea and avoid clearing the garden of weeds. "Under a set of specific circumstances with the proper safety procedures in place to prevent a catastrophe, I would, but it can't be here where there are plenty of other ingredients the Morph can absorb so the thing can cause further damage if anything else that can possibly strengthen it is devoured by it."

"Absolutely not," her teacher instantly rejected her proposal. "It will be here right now, or you'll pull weeds. Is that clear, Yosafire?" Maybe the demon was right, but Greif certainly didn't want Gray Village to see a monstrosity if Yosafire was actually correct.

Once again Yosafire sighed in defeat. "Then I'm afraid the answer is no since I can't work in these conditions," she said while holding her right arm out to point out their surroundings within the science lab. Although Greif did like the fact she wanted to be precautious, she felt her student had a misguided idea of ensuring this little experiment went off without consequence. She guessed that was it then as the demon clearly wasn't going to follow through with this project. It was quite a shame that such potential was wasted with the opportunity to test it thrown out the window where the weeds resided. Their call for Yosafire was made, and the gryphon would satisfy their call by sending her out to fulfill that purpose. She almost smirked at the thought of the demon doing it for the rest of her life; perhaps it was a life calling for her.

"Then you'll be pulling weeds," Greif crossed one arm across her chest while pointing her other one towards the door. "You are to begin immediately as of right now. Do not come back to me until you have finished cleaning the garden so that I won't see a single weed infecting the space to steal precious nutrients other plants require. Now move, and don't talk back to me or I will place you in detention for the rest of the week clearing weeds throughout Gray Village. Do I make myself clear, Yosafire?" She commanded, ensuring both her order and the threat were firmly established.

A third sigh escaped Yosafire's mouth as she hunched over in defeat while sauntering out, wishing Froze had stayed behind to help. "Yes, Ms. Greif," she uttered somberly, closing the door behind her as the gryphon listened to the demon's footfalls leave. Greif sighed since she knew her chance was blown; there went the only individual who could teach her how to create potions. She supposed it wasn't too bad since there wasn't even a pressing need for such knowledge, but Greif still wanted to clear that hurdle if it would make her a more effective teacher. She wouldn't really use it for anything, but it helped to at least learn it in the event something required a bit of context concerning alchemy; and if she failed, she could always call on Yosafire for that purpose.

"Oh well," she muttered softly and went to the cabinets and opened them, searching for the four ingredients she wanted Yosafire to use, "guess I'll just have to teach myself." Learning would occasionally require a bit of self-teaching if homeschooling and lectures in classes weren't enough to satisfy one's desire and need for education, so the gryphon felt she had no choice but to use this opportunity on her own without Yosafire's help. She smiled upon finding the right ingredients and chuckled, gathering them up and bringing them over to the table. "We'll see just how well the idea holds water, Yosafire. I'll show you that alchemy is not the same as evokation."

Although it wasn't proper for a teacher like her to act competitive against students, it would still give her an edge over the demon to demonstrate that trying to prove teachers wrong wouldn't bode well for students' academic integrity. Plus she liked the feeling of superiority in the sense it taught Yosafire to know her place in society. Greif didn't want to be a bad teacher, but she couldn't help but enjoy herself whenever the opportunity to tease Yosafire in this manner was presented. It put Yosafire to work and taught her a valuable lesson about hardships. That was a crucial element of life she needed to know despite having fought against Ivlis when he invaded the Gray Garden to kill Kcalb and steal his power—which he almost did had Yosafire and her friends not been there.

Yet Greif's enjoyment didn't last long because once she arrayed the four ingredients before her and looked them over carefully, she realized she didn't know what to do with them. How were things like these prepared? She put a bent finger to her chin and crossed one arm across her chest, tapping her left foot on the floor while thinking about how to apply them together. The ingredients were put into a pot and cooked like normal culinary ingredients, right? Greif was beginning to feel unsure about that, so she went over to the bookcase and found a few textbooks on how to prepare alchemical ingredients. Surprisingly enough, the book Yosafire cited was also there as well. Greif picked it up as well just to confirm what Yosafire was saying and did indeed find the 'Morph' she mentioned. "Well, I'll concede that to you, Yosafire," she uttered quietly to herself while heading back to the table, "but let's see if those tests of yours are valid and supportive of the theory."

Upon opening the books, Greif looked through the table of contents and found one chapter on the alchemical instruments she would be using. A mortar and pestle was just a fundamental that could break up ingredients and was the only apparatus needed to brew potions. Retorts improved the positive effects of those potions by increasing the duration they lasted and how powerful they were. Calcinators did that too, but they also included the negative side effects which were mended by using an alembic to decrease the effectiveness of the consequences. Greif was able to locate the items in question within a cabinet by the bookshelf, but for now she only used a mortar and pestle before moving onto the advanced apparatuses since the books mentioned starting small with only mortar and pestles just to get a basic idea of what alchemy was like.

"Let's see…smash the ingredients up like this…" she said to herself while reading the text quietly, checking the contents of her mixed ingredients to see what they looked like. The substance was a sticky paste of a color that could only be described as ivy blue. "That seems okay…Now to see how this works in the calcinator." Although the book said to use the retort next, Greif thought it would have been better just to see how the positive and negative effects were developed. It was an innocent decision on her part, but the gryphon was about to find out her choice would actually have a negative consequence in of itself—especially when she turned away for several moments a few seconds after turning on a burner to heat up the substance.

She merely flipped through a set of pages in one of the textbooks, not even thinking to read through Chorrestico's text again as it was a leading authority on how to differentiate between what to do in alchemy and evokation in cases that could have been too dangerous. Although Greif didn't realize it yet, she really should've consulted that text more thoroughly than simply glancing at the creature's name. Hers was a novice's choice, and her mistake caused by the eagerness to learn how to do alchemy would certainly cost something. She just didn't know what yet because she did not even think anything would happen despite having known culinary ingredients emitted scents when boiled on a stove or in an oven. That was part of the reason why something bad was going to occur, another part being her looking away, and the final part being her novice knowledge.

Unbeknownst to Greif, the substance was beginning to bubble slowly at first and it became faster when she started to walk back towards the bookshelf to put away the textbooks. She wasn't planning on pouring it into a bottle since she just wanted to see how it was done, so she felt those books weren't that necessary anymore. The gryphon was just about done reorganizing them where they originally where when she suddenly heard the sound of glass cracking behind her. Greif turned around quickly and gasped when she saw the damage that substance was doing. "Oh god, this isn't good," she said frantically while rushing over to the calcinator to turn the burner off.

Unfortunately, the beaker she poured the substance into exploded in her face, sending many shards of broken glass flying in all directions. Most of them hit Greif and she shrieked as the shards struck and cut her, but luckily she shut her eyes just in time and cried out after turning away from the explosion. Noxious gases emanated from the substance and were inhaled into her lungs as she coughed, staggering against a counter behind her and stumbling over a chair. She nearly fell, but managed to regain her balance while partially opening one eye to assess the damage caused by the explosion. It was only a destroyed beaker that had to be replaced, but the burner was extinguished which was good as it wouldn't feed widespread flames, yet it left behind a large, black mark that had to be cleaned. This was not merely the extent of what her failure caused, but Greif believed it was the only damage to the science lab. Another innocent conception of a novice like her, and one that proved dangerous because she thought the substance was destroyed.

Greif sighed before she coughed again and waved away the fumes and dust. "Well that was a total failure," she remarked while dusting herself off and stepping over to the table to better look at the damage for a closer assessment of it. "Can't say I learned nothing about alchemy from this, but at least it gave me a good idea of its complexity." She pressed a claw to the space charred from the destruction and immediately pulled it away, wincing from the seething pain because it was still too hot to touch. Some cloth and a bit of water with some cleaning material could clean this mess up as would a small shovel and a garbage pail to discard broken glass with the vacuum from the janitor's closet to pick up the tiny shards. She sighed again, aware that Yosafire might come in at any moment to see the damage her teacher caused. If her account of the Morph as described by Chorrestico was true, she might freak out over its presence. As it was, however, there was no sign of the substance anywhere, so perhaps it really did blow up as well.

In any case, Greif sauntered to the door as she felt the few cuts on her face. She winced in pain again since they stung quite a good deal, but luckily she knew a basic healing spell the school required her to know if any students got hurt somehow. The cuts closed up completely while pain that came with them dissipated too. Now she had to clean this mess up and figured she would make a trip to a local store for another beaker once she was done after Yosafire reported in regarding the status of weed pulling. The young demon was probably halfway done by now.

Greif was about to step into the hallway en route to the janitor's closet, but a sudden sound from within the science lab made her pause. The gryphon turned in the direction of where the odd noise came from and blinked in surprise several times. "What the hell?" she asked rhetorically and slowly returned to the table and looked around. The shards of broken glass vanished, and the table was perfectly clean as if no damage had ever been done to it. Baffled as to what just occurred while her back was turned, Greif rubbed the sleeve of her military jacket against her eyes and then just stared blankly at the scene. "Why is it so clean? It wasn't like this moments ago."

The slithering of something from the other side of the table caught her attention as she went around it and checked the area for any signs of the sound she just heard. Yet nothing was there, as if nothing was there at all. Greif just blinked again and instinctively put a hand to her Hutton sabre, thinking there might've actually been something in the science lab with her. Further slithering was heard behind her and she whipped around to find nothing there once again. That time it was faster, and a third sound followed by a click made her whirl to the cabinet of ingredients which somehow surprised her more than the faster slithering behind her which she responded to by whirling around again. Greif swallowed heavily and partially pushed the sabre out of its sheath, prepared to cut any sort of threat down before it caught her off guard.

"Show yourself this instant, whoever, whatever you are…" she commanded, narrowing her eyes as she prepared to whip around and skewer whatever was behind her. She could hear it slither behind her again by the ingredients, this time slowing down and oozing as if it stopped for whatever reason. That was Greif's opening, and she seized to opportunity to pounce upon her foe by whirling around and striking the foe's center. Her attack landed successfully, but then she stopped suddenly and blinked in surprise again when she saw exactly what it was. Once again she repeated what she had said a few minutes ago when she first saw signs that something was amiss. "What the hell…?" There was definitely something strange going on, and it didn't completely register with her yet.

The substance from her failed alchemical experiment was slumped into the cabinet, oozing all over it as the thing twitched and shivered violently. It appeared to be absorbing the ingredients into its own form as the color of the substance changed colors rapidly while it pulsed and expanded. Greif blinked at it several times before she realized this was the Morph written of in the book, the one Yosafire was talking about. Now she needed to concede full victory of their debate on it to her student, but first came the extermination of this thing as the gryphon's expression darkened while she struggled to pull her sabre out from the Morph…

And stumbled backwards when she succeeded, only to find the entire blade missing with a bare hilt in her hand. Greif held it before her face and stared at it, baffled that the whole thing was devoured or corroded by an alchemical experiment gone wrong. She had just concocted a creature only evokers who took up alchemy would create, and now realized she'd pay dearly for her mistake as the Morph was now suddenly towering a good three feet above her, nearly touching the ceiling. It seemed to be looking down on her as Greif shuddered, closing her eyes with her mouth open in a sheepish smile as she chuckled sheepishly while waving nervously before bolting out the science lab with the Morph in pursuit. She ran through the hall and fled up the stairs nearby as a gelatinous mass that threatened to kill her sped up to catch its prey.

…

Two minutes later Yosafire sauntered back into the school with her eyes closed while she listened to some good music on the CD in her portable CD player. She had just finished uprooting the weeds out in the garden and had returned to inform Greif of her success. "Ms. Greif," Yosafire called out to her teacher while stepping into the science lab, "I finished…pulling the…weeds out in…the garden." Her voice wavered as she spoke until it died out completely when she opened her eyes and saw what happened to the room before her.

It was mostly fine, save for the overturned cabinet where ingredients were stored. Yosafire walked over to it and knelt down, checking the cabinet while she tried to lift it. With a bit of effort she got it upright as her mouth hung agape when she noticed the alchemical ingredients were all missing. "The ingredients, they're gone!" she gasped and whipped around to see where they could have gone before her nose caught the scent of something familiar.

Yosafire calmly closed her eyes and sniffed a few times, recalling a time when she caught a whiff of it for the first time back when she and Froze did those tests some weeks back. Then she opened them again and formed a fist as she turned to the door, her expression darkening as Yosafire figured out just what happened and who was responsible for it.

"Ms. Greif…"

…

"_Damn, damn, damn…!"_ Greif mentally swore, constantly repeating the word in her mind several times as she fled down the hall in a panic with the Morph close on her heels. Two tentacles had formed on the front of it and they struck at her, but the gryphon turned her head back within a split second and managed to dodge the attacks. Yet she stumbled briefly, giving the thing another opportunity to strike as the third blow swept across the floor. It nearly tripped Greif up, but luckily she regained her balance just in time and ran through an open classroom, slamming the door right behind her as the Morph collided with it. The force of the impact sent her stumbling forward again, but she once again righted herself and whirled around to face the door. Although she was safe for a spell, the creature was beating down the door with such force while partly oozing underneath the crack beneath it that Greif knew she couldn't stay here for long. Her only route of escape were the windows in here, and luckily one of them was open for her to get out in time.

For now, though, she simply paced back and forth a couple times in deep thought. _"Come on, Greif, focus!"_ she thought to herself with a bent finger to her chin as she became slightly pale, somewhat fearful of what could happen to her and possibly the rest of Gray Village if this Morph escaped. _"There has to be some way you could destroy this thing! Think!"_

Then it hit her right as the creature finally destroyed the door and entered into the room as Greif was rushing through the open window onto part of a border roof hanging slightly over walls of the first floor. Fire! Yosafire said Morphs were weak to fire and that it would kill them! The fire from the burners in the science lab were her only recourse of defeating the alchemical beast before it killed her and ran amok within Gray Village. If she could make it there, she would lure the thing onto one of the tables where a lit burner would obliterate the Morph. Greif smiled in satisfaction, her victory secure; she had to give credit to Yosafire for the idea despite choosing to not tell her.

Unfortunately, it appeared her luck ran out before she could even seize victory since Greif suddenly cried out as a tentacle forced her to the edge where she lost her balance and slipped upon the tiles before falling to the ground below. She was fortunate to not have accrued any damage on impact aside from a minor bruise on her back, but things were about to get worse as the thing then leapt in the air and landed several feet before her. The Morph somehow growled at Greif while she quickly pinned her back against the wall, shivering fearfully because she realized this was the end for her. The gryphon's eyes widened in fright as the alchemical monstrosity hunched back as if it was going to charge her, and indeed it did by rushing toward her. Greif squealed in fear while the Morph reared what might have been its head and attempted to smash her into oblivion…

Until a certain demon ran in front and blew a powerful burst of green flames which soaked the Morph in seething heat. It screeched in pain and slithered back several feet as Yosafire kept up the assault, feeding the fire until the thing slowly started to melt away into nothing. When it slowly died away, what was left of the Morph was nothing more than a mere liquid puddle on the ground.

Greif had shut her eyes out of fear during the attack, but now they were wide open because she was watching the Morph struggle to stay alive as it burned away. Once the thing was no more, she stood up and sighed in relief, glad this whole incident was all over.

"_Ms. Greif."_

And then Greif uttered a small squeak of fear when she realized her cover was blown before hunching over in defeat now that Yosafire knew what had happened. It was pretty humiliating, but this wasn't actually the worst she had been through. If anything, her role as the teacher reversed to that of a student being reprimanded by her own teacher. She really had to give credit to Yosafire.

"Care to explain why I had to burn a Morph to nothing?" the demon inquired, arms across her chest as she tapped her foot against the ground while waiting for an answer. "Did I not explain why those specific ingredients wouldn't produce a potion?"

Greif sighed, now having to admit defeat to one of her students and accepting consequences of her actions which destroyed a bit of school property. "Y-yes, you were right, Yosafire. I should have followed through on your request instead of trying to do it on my own. I'm sorry for causing a bit of trouble on my part. I didn't intend for something like this to happen."

"Then what was your intention?" Yosafire asked in a critical tone as her teacher sighed.

"To know how to do alchemy better, or at least know what it's like."

"Did it not occur to you that it would've been better to have asked me to show you rather than make it a detention assignment, or to ask the science teacher instead?" came the next critical inquiry. "I'm not perfect myself, but do you even realize what could've happened had this incident erupted into something serious? Ms. Greif, you singlehandedly destroyed all the other ingredients and a door which I also saw. Was learning about alchemy so important you had to risk everything?"

"I-I said it wasn't my intention!" Greif retorted while holding her hands up in defense. "It was an accident, I swear. I didn't mean to create something capable of destruction. I only wanted to see what alchemy was like and try to learn a bit about it by producing just a single potion. I did not say why because I'm supposed to know this stuff even though I clearly don't know about this."

Yosafire's critical expression never faltered and she assumed a dominant stance during the conversation. "Now who's talking back to whom?" she asked sarcastically before huffing to show how frustrated she was. "Here's a lesson for you, Ms. Greif: next time, stay out of the science lab." And with that she turned abruptly to storm away, her arms down at her sides while she muttered a string of curses under her breath. Greif understood her student's anger was justified, but she wanted to try and make amends for her mistake as best she could.

"Yosafire, wait, I—"

"Don't bother, Ms. Greif," Yosafire called back coldly without turning around. "You don't even know which exact ingredients to purchase since you evidently don't seem to even know what they are." She sighed in exasperation as she stormed off in anger. "Honestly, I forget one solitary assignment and I end up having to do more work one of my own teachers can't even accomplish. Taking inventory of what was lost and assessing the damage, gathering ingredients and the amount of each the school requires, cleaning up this mess with the proper solutions…"

Greif watched her walk off a short distance and sighed, knowing fully well she had to speak with the principal about this issue. Hopefully that didn't go south like her failed alchemical attempt did. She was about to call after Yosafire again when she saw the demon chuck a vial of something right at her, and Greif stumbled as she fumbled to catch it. "Yosafire, what is this?!" she called out to her student as the demon briefly turned back to her.

"You're lucky I have a few spare antidotes for that poison you likely ingested from having used belladonna!" Yosafire shouted back before turning away again as Greif realized she was right. She had inhaled some of the poisonous fumes, so the gryphon immediately gulped the antidote in in one sip before she exhaled a deep breath and sighed in relief. Greif looked at the bottle and read the instructions on it, acknowledging this as what healed her. Then she watched a final glimpse of Yosafire walking into the school and sighed again. She was going to have a lot of explaining to do when she discussed what happened with the principal, plus Greif had to thank the demon for saving her life. A good reimbursement to cover how much Yosafire paid for the damage would probably do it and also to thank Yosafire for teaching her a valuable lesson: to make a potion, one must first acknowledge their flaws and determine whether pursuing alchemy for one's career was worth the trouble that ensued. In Greif's case it clearly wasn't worth learning if she made a mess like this.

…

**For once Yosafire got the upper hand over Greif without even trying. I figured it was a good taste of irony since Greif is usually strict towards her students, especially Yosafire.**

**As I said above in my response to Emperor853, this was meant to poke fun at alchemy and my inexperience with it. I've mentioned why I don't like it as well, so I don't think I need to really elaborate on my reasoning any further.**

**The four ingredients I mentioned were all found in the expanded and revised edition of Scott Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs, a good book that includes a great catalogue of herbs. I'm sure they wouldn't produce a creature like the thing in this one-shot in real life, but for the purpose of the fanfic I had these herbs do just that.**

**This one-shot was also inspired by Palutena's Revolting Dinner, an animated short in the Kid Icarus: Uprising game. I don't really like the game, but this animated short was very funny in my opinion. I recommend you watch it on YouTube if you're curious about it.**

**Hutton's sabre is a real fencing sabre named after Alfred Hutton, an Englishman of the King's Dragoon Guards which served the English monarchy. With his associates, Hutton is renowned for helping bring back historical fencing in England. You can learn more about him on Wikipedia since that site provides further information regarding who he was. I took a look through some sabres and rapiers on Google Images and decided to have Greif wield a Hutton sabre because it felt like the blade fit with her in my opinion.**

**The Morph was named after a set of enemies from Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken who were created by the game's antagonist, Nergal, from quintessence. It's the life essence of an individual in that game, and losing it kills whoever it was taken from. One definition of this term is real like Hutton's sabre, though I don't think what happens when one loses it is real.**

**As for my next major Gray Garden project, I will be doing an alternative scenario of Raspbel's Secret. Crack-jouchan, a fellow fanfiction author, wrote a similar story last year called Redemption, a good fanfic I recommend reading. My story won't be approaching the idea of Raspbel's Secret from the same direction Crack-jouchan explored because mine will be a lot darker than Redemption and it shall be a lot different from that story.**

**I hope you enjoy reading this as I enjoyed writing it.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Gray Garden as it's owned by Mogeko. I don't own Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken either since it's owned by Intelligent Systems and Nintendo. I don't own Kid Icarus: Uprising as well since it's owned by Project Sora, Sora Ltd., and Nintendo.**


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